Is fatty diarrhea dangerous?

This is an automatically translated article.

The article was consulted professionally with MSc Vu Tan Phuc - Department of Medical Examination & Internal Medicine, Vinmec Phu Quoc International General Hospital.
Fatty diarrhea is the passage of greasy stools in the stool. In normal people, the amount of fat in the stool when excreted is less than 7g in a day, if the amount of fat is more than 7g/day, it is diagnosed as steatorrhea.

1. Causes of fatty diarrhea

The main cause of fatty diarrhea is that the body is immune to gluten, a protein found in barley, wheat... called gluten.
Gluten is known as a protein that has the function of creating the characteristic elasticity of flour, making flour made from the above rice types more flexible and dense. Gluten occurs in most breads, flours, pizzas, cookies, cakes.. and many in soups, gravy, soy sauce...
When eating foods containing gluten, these proteins will cause causes an inflammatory response in the intestines that causes atrophy of the villi and a decrease in the surface area for absorption of essential nutrients from food, causing steatorrhea.
Some other causes of steatorrhea are related to certain diseases such as: Type 1 diabetes and hypothyroidism, dermatitis herpetiformis.

2. Signs to recognize fatty diarrhea

Fatty diarrhea is easily recognized by the following signs:
Passing out loose stools, with an unpleasant odor and a layer of grease appears in the toilet For young children, signs of gluten intolerance occur. very early, right from the time the baby begins to eat solids with powder. Children often have symptoms of bloating, diarrhea, fatigue, nausea... Due to lack of nutrients, people with diarrhea often lose weight, lose hair, have skin problems, short stature... May cause infertility or complications during pregnancy.

3. Is fatty diarrhea dangerous?

Fatty diarrhea has certain effects on the patient. Cases of long-term untreated fatty diarrhea will be the premise of cancers such as: cancer of the small intestine and esophageal epithelium. Lately diagnosed cases are very likely to lead to osteoporosis due to reduced calcium absorption. In addition, patients are very susceptible to an increased risk of malignancies, especially lymphomas or complications of diffuse inflammation of the duodenum - ileum. Fatty diarrhea can also lead to an increased risk of infertility or pregnancy complications, but if gluten is removed from the diet, the complications will be minimized and gone.

4. How to treat steatorrhea?

Fatty diarrhea is a disease that can be completely treated simply and will not cause any danger to the patient if it is treated early and properly. Visit your doctor as soon as you have the first signs of this disease, do blood tests and biopsies to accurately diagnose the condition
From the cause of this disease the patient just needs to eliminate gluten out of the diet, the person will feel symptoms reduce or disappear after not eating foods containing gluten. However, it takes 2-6 years for the patient's intestines to completely heal.

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